When you go to the doctor and get advice or treatment for anything from an infected wound to heart surgery, it’s likely that you think that there is research behind everything that doctor does. But at present it is very much a question of sticking with what seems to have worked so far. Only one fifth of all medical care has good evidence, which is scientifically proven to work, according to the researcher Stefan James, Uppsala University. Therapies based purely on clinical experience are by no means a bad thing. But the experience needs to be systematically collated if it is to be of any value, and that’s what Stefan James devotes his research time to in addition to his work as a cardiac surgeon. Thanks to his research, several treatment methods have changed.